Women's health issues draw hundreds to Statehouse

posted by The Associated Press
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3 years ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) --A Statehouse rally opposing Ohio laws that limit access to abortions and other women's health care is drawing participants from around the state and country.

Members of more than 50 women's groups, labor unions and others are expected at Wednesday's event. The "We Won't Go Back" rally takes issue with funding cuts to Planned Parenthood as well as abortion-related restrictions placed on Ohio's publicly funded hospitals and on counselors at taxpayer-funded rape crisis centers.

Feminist Majority Foundation president Ellie Smeal is among speakers.

Smeal says she hopes the rally will show Ohio's Republican-dominated Legislature that Ohio women don't want clinics to close that provide inexpensive services including pap smears, birth control, testing for sexually transmitted diseases and abortions.